I thought I'd try to use my iPad to simply cull images, but I'm struggling to figure out a workflow.

What I want to do, is look through my native images on my iPad, choose the ones I want and delete the ones I don't, then later load those into Lightroom for and edits, etc.

First, I tried loading pictures through iTunes, but that "optimizes" the images -- meaning it copies into a smaller resolution. My issue with this is, I'm not working with the original RAW images, so anything I delete, I have to manually compare to the RAW, to figure out which ones I want to keep.

Second, I tried dropbox, but deleting the files through dropbox is tedious.

Does someone have a good workflow for viewing choosing the original files on your iPad, before loading into Lightroom (or other DAM or editor)?

I haven't found the iPad to be very useful to me for file management/content editing, so I use it almost entirely for content consumption. One alternative to an iPad would be one of the new MB Air models. More money, but considerably more utility and still small and lightweight, with full file management/content editing.

In time, I think the iPad will probably get some useful desktop file/folder management/utility, but it's very poor at that now.

I use my iPad for culling "in the field" all the time using the camera connector kit.

Using cc kit, import all photos.
Go into photos, "last import" folder and cull
Go back to "camera" folder, and you can see which ones you deleted because they won't have a check mark
Select those and delete them off the card
Import from the card into Lightroom when you get home

I use my iPad for culling "in the field" all the time using the camera connector kit.

Using cc kit, import all photos.
Go into photos, "last import" folder and cull
Go back to "camera" folder, and you can see which ones you deleted because they won't have a check mark
Select those and delete them off the card
Import from the card into Lightroom when you get home

Click to expand...

That sounds like a nice work around for culling. Now if we can just get better file management on the iPad, that would be great.

I use my iPad for culling "in the field" all the time using the camera connector kit.

Using cc kit, import all photos.
Go into photos, "last import" folder and cull
Go back to "camera" folder, and you can see which ones you deleted because they won't have a check mark
Select those and delete them off the card
Import from the card into Lightroom when you get home

shoot jpeg+RAW
import using camera connection kit, it imports both, delete all from card.
head into last import, culling
optional: play with the imported images on iPad and publish from there. I use snapseed, photoforge2 and others to do this when I like to play.
connect the iPad with your computer, import from the iPad into Lightroom.
optional: delete the imported pictures from the iPad
optional: export from lightroom to a sync folder using optimized settings. If they are the "right" size, iTunes won't destroy them in the process. I have a preset at home for this.

this way, the pictures on my iPad all come from Lightroom, apart from the newly imported ones and the ones I save after playing on the iPad.

Oooh, a topic close to my own heart. I could have bought several "real computers" if I charged my self standard rates got the time I've wasted getting this to work. But I've got my travel workflow to a reasonable level now.

I import using the camera connection kit and copy all files to an Epson P3000 with a 120GB drive. I then cull hard using the iPad photo app. As you know I'm a fan of Photosmith and I still use it to rate files and create Lightroom collections on my iPad. Then I copy the files from the Epson and the catalogue from the iPad to my computer when I get home.

Tomorrow my new Hyperdrive for iPad arrives and I'll put a 500GB drive in it. Hopefully it will improve things further still.

I've been afraid to delete images after import to iPad, and I haven't set up my new iMac to receive RAW photos from the iPad. So, for now, I do the whole import/upload thing twice. Definitely not optimum! I do enjoy editing the JPEGs on the iPad, especially with Snapseed from Nik.

I just tried Snapseed based on Chuck's comment above. How is that NOT the best iPad app for Photography??? Incredible!!! I'm going to get an SD card reader for my iPad just for that, and may shoot jpg just for fun! Thanks!

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